The question of significance: Tall ship sailing and virtue development

ABSTRACT

Notions of ‘personal and social development’ within experiential learning literature remain philosophically underdeveloped, often identified as something like practical wisdom or practical reasoning. Experiential learning practitioners and theorists make frequent claims regarding the ‘life-changing’ significance for participants; particularly in terms of character development. Surprisingly rare, however, is a long-range study investigating these claims. This article shares findings from a retrospective study examining perceptions of program alumni from a tall ship sailing study school with a view for personal and social development during the experience and since, understood through an Aristotelian virtue lens. Four themes emerged from data: Significance, practice, values clarification and friendships and community. Themes are examined in relation to virtue theory and implications for practice and future research explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtue development
• outdoor education
• sail training
• personal development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aaron Marshall

Aaron Marshall teaches adjunct for Miami University and Westmont College and is the Chief Operating Officer at the Santa Barbara Zoo. [email protected]

Peter Allison

Peter Allison is a Professor at The Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values and Experiential Learning. E Mail [email protected]

Jonathan Hearn

Jonathan Hearn is Professor of Political and Historical Sociology and Head of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. [email protected]